Imagine that because you made one choice after another to weaken the rule of law in this country, our representative democracy became a dictatorship. And then, as often happens in dictatorships, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people were tortured and killed by the state without trial or recourse to law. Wars began, and the whole world suffered.

That's what we're fighting and speaking up about here. You'd have us wait until it's too late, then cry about how unfair it all is. The only advantage to being able to predict cause and effect is when you actually go and do something about it. In the case of the dismantling of civil liberties, doing something effective about it will always, 100% of the time look like overreaction, because the correction will take place years before the disaster would hit.

First they came for the Muslims, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Muslim.

People who write books can sell physical books, and do. Kindle, etc. I like having something to hold onto when I read. People generally don't bother to scan non-utterly-famous books in, and I cannot even weep crocodile tears for Salinger. He has enough money already from that one book.

Movies can be on big formats like bluray that are hard to pirate, and do.

Musicians can perform for a living, and do.

"Content creators" on the internet can use advertising to make.. whatever they can make.

Games producers can use systems like Valve's Steam for delivery and patching, pretty much ending piracy.

I don't (and haven't, for years) see what all the fuss is about. The idea of being able to ride for free for years on a few hours or days of work is just crazytalk. Raise the plank and hoist the sail!

Sheeeeeeeeeeeee-it.

The money for TARP didn't come from some secret money bin or anything.. it was created for the purpose. Given we're running a ~$600B deficit, there is no reserve. There is only "print slightly less money."

Link to the US budget in sig. It's sad that I trust Wiki over the USG's estimates these days, but who knows what relationship the government's claims bear to reality this week..

This includes preselection of their fetuses for intelligence, height, gender, eye color, probable favorite contestant on American Idol 2030, or whatever else they want. That's because I believe that up until it can survive on its own unaided for some minimal length of time, we ought to consider a fetus no more than an interesting growth inside a woman's body.

Her body. With which she may do anything she likes.

The choice movement ought to stop its absurd contortions as it tries to answer the various hysterical scenarios proposed by the anti-choice folks. All playing their games accomplishes is to confuse the issue, which is of course what they want. Sufficiently confused people fall back on emotion and simple solutions every time.

Not quite. Don't assume conspiracy where simple greed or laziness will suffice. In this case the people driving the mergers (executives) could see an immediate payoff in the form of bonus targets met, and the increase of stock options already granted. That alone is enough to drive mergers and acquisitions to the pace we see today.

It's also worth noting that the immediate fiduciary interest of the shareholders will tend to drive leaders of public corporations to pursue mergers as a way of demonstrating "growth". This is an unavoidable consequence of the human tendency to take perception at face value and act upon it.

Shrug. The only way to curb this kind of problem is strong, vigorous regulation. And the prerequisite for that is a legislature that isn't heavily influenced by the business lobby. Which we don't have, and won't have until fundamental campaign finance reform is complete.

Indeed, I wanted to draw an even more obvious (and thus IMO believable) line of cause and effect. No long-term plan is necessary when direct, immediate self interest suffices to prompt people to act.

"I believe in love and I live my life accordingly, and I choose to let the mystery be." :]

I've taken a controversial stand on bioethics as it's important that we think about long term consequences in debating policy. Preselection of offspring is just one head of the hydra modern genetics has created. We simply must accept the fact that someone, somewhere will be playing with genes. The only safe way to mitigate that is that -all- of us need to play with genes. The world certainly will change, dramatically, but better that than a Gattaca-style water empire that lasts for all time. Be thou not afraid.

@Stozzel

Anti-choice is exactly the right word, though. Your moderate views cannot constitute a fig leaf for those who'll say that all women in all circumstances from the very moment of conception must adhere to their religious or moral dogmas. Sure, you and I may be able to negotiate a time when abortion is no longer acceptable. The people doing the donating, protesting and murdering are most definitely not like you. They are anti-choice people.

~~~

Although I'm a man, I stand for reproductive rights as the spearhead of human rights in general. Nobody is going to tell me what to do with my body, and I'll do what I can to keep them out of yours as well. Amusingly, I'm not in favor of unrestricted procreation.

spit in the other. See which one fills up first.

That made my whole morning.

Whatever the reality of car safety may be, it's important to point out the yawning fissures in the logic of the public policy discourse.

Sure, bad things happened. But the important thing is to make sure they don't happen again. The best way to do that is to ignore them and try to convince everyone else to do the same! Right?

The prow of the ship is still above water! Never mind that pesky iceberg. We should definitely never address a problem prior to it becoming a crisis.